DNA-eating bacteria lurk beneath the Atlantic Ocean floor

For a few species of microbe, DNA is more than a library of genetic information: it’s also lunch. Some bacteria that live in the mud below the seafloor appear to survive by eating DNA trapped in the dirt.

“This is one of the yummiest things to eat down there,” says Gustavo Ramírez at the University of Southern California. “It’s got the major macronutrients that you get in your lawn fertiliser – carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus.”